The UMIP provides financing to the Final Beneficiaries for municipal infrastructure projects in five sectors:

district heating,

energy efficiency in public buildings,

municipal lighting,

water supply and wastewater,

solid waste management.

The Final Beneficiaries include central or local state administrations, bodies of local self-government and state and communal enterprises including enterprises which have majority state or communal participation.

The first step in setting up the Programme was the first Call for Proposals initiated in February 2016. The Programme Management Support Unit (PMSU) was established by the MRD in 2016. Overall, 192 applications were received by the MRD at the beginning of 2016.

At the moment, the selection of Potential Final Beneficiaries has been completed:

July 2016 (stage 1: “Eligibility screening”) - a list of eligible Projects was formed based on the results;

The UMIP is operated by a number of different stakeholders. The following UMIP structure presents the key stakeholders and their roles in the UMIP implementation. The structure aims at assuring the clear and transparent processes for the UMIP implementation.

The Project Identification process is the first stage of the Project cycle under the UMIP and was initiated, with the first call for proposals published on the MRD webpage in February 2016. Applications received from Potential Final Beneficiaries build the basis for the identification of eligible proposals. The eligible applicants are then invited to present additional supporting Project documentation to perform the Project Quality and Relevance Screening in accordance with the Programme Procedures Manual (PPM).